i am wanting to get a small to medium sized pond for my kids this summer to have a few goldfish in no koi. are the preformed kinda any count? whats the best size style to have? i ahve room for it and i live in tennessee. we are wanting this to be a fun family project so just wanting to get some of you ponders advice on it. thanks in advance!

Preformed ponds will work for a few goldfish buy the largest one you can as it will be alot more stable for the fish.

There is plenty of advise on this site and many other sites do a simple google search on pond building.

Then spend a couple days reading about them before you do any buying.

The large preformed ponds are usually too expensive (at least for me). The small ones are just way too small. Liner ponds cost less for the same volume. You can also make ponds out of storage tubs if money is tight, kiddie pools (don't last more than a few years though), or livestock tanks (watering troughs for cattle, horses, etc.). The Rubbermaid livestock tanks get pretty big and are cheaper than official preformed ponds. You'll have a lot more flexibility with liner ponds than preformed ones.

Here's a link to my tub pond page:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/tubpond.htm

robin,did you bury yours pools and such? i thought about doing that and was just wandering what you did with it./

My first pond was a kiddie pool, not buried. Then, after a few months, I buried a 50 gallon Rubbermaid tub. The following year, I had my 1800 gallon built. A few years later, I removed the 50 gallon Rubbermaid tub and put in the 153 gallon liner pond there. The Rubbermaid tub pond had started to bow (the middle top came in while the middle bottom went out) and would have eventually failed. I also have a lot of tub ponds. All are above ground except for the 50 gallon Lerio pot (they don't sell them anymore) which is buried with rocks ringing it around the top. You can bury whatever kind of pond that you have. Some are stronger and last longer than others.

well i think i am gonna try the kiddie pool deal. i have a place in landscaping it will fit. did you aerate it or anything robing? i am gonna put some landscaping rock around it for decor and see hwo it works but i was just wandering bout oxygen and filktering it

I only had the kiddie pool for a few months in 1996. One day, my brother and I went to the local "park" (meaning replace wildlife with fields that are sprayed with chemicals). They have some drainage ponds there. I saw some tadpoles and such. I went home and got containers and collected tadpoles, snails, and what I thought were iris (which were in fact common cattails, the decendents of which I still have in my pond) and a few other weeds and things. I put those in my kiddie pool. A little while later, I put in Jack and Jill, my first pond goldfish. There was no aeration, filtration, etc. The pond started to stagnate some. That's when I buried a Rubbermaid storage tub. The following spring, Jack and Jill went into my 1800 gallon pond which will be 10 years old next week.

If you can add some water movement, aeration, and filtration, a kiddie pool pond will last longer, look better, and be more healthy.

If you buy the little feeder fish, be prepared for them dying on you. I've bought about 20, off and on thru last summer. I have 4 still alive. The bulk of them died within the month or two, never making it over an inch. The last 4 deaths from the pond were about 2 inches long, and turned out to be jumpers ( especially liking the waterfall ). Spot was the only one with true aim and survived the falls. Pigboy hardly comes to the surface( they were out of 10). Runt is the last of 5, straight to the pond and the others died. Patches is the last of 5 that went to the aquarium first. From what I understand the mottled colors are the 'weakest', and the more gold/yellow are the strongest. Runt and Pigboy are all gold, Spot having a black tail, and Patches is white with a red patch on his upperback. Start planning an actual pond....you'll be getting hooked.

Many feeder goldfish are in poor health. They are treated with no respect, given poor food, often anorexic, kept in filthy water, and usually have some parasites or bacterial problems. That said, you can usually nurse feeder fish back to health if you're lucky not to get a really sick batch. 10 years ago when I got my 1800 gallon pond, I quarantined a dozen feeder goldfish in a kiddie pool for two weeks and then put them in the pond. I had no deaths. I also got some comets and fancier goldfish (who didn't last long, a few years at most) at the same time. My fish are now their mixed decendants. Feeder goldfish don't have to be common goldfish. They'll throw in comets, shubunkins, and other goldfish that are not good enough or overstock. But, they're all goldfish and deserve a good life.